Downton’s tragic Lavinia enjoys new life on London stage

 
p9 Mandatory Credit: Photo by Picture Perfect / Rex Features (1973408w) Zoe Boyle 'World Without End' TV programme premiere, Berlin, Germany - 14 Nov 2012
Rex
23 November 2012

The Downton Abbey stage invasion continues with Zoe Boyle — who played tragic heiress Lavinia Swire — starring in a new play at the Royal Court.

Boyle, 27, whose character died of Spanish flu in the finale to the second Downton series, will appear with Tom Sturridge in No Quarter by Polly Stenham.

She follows co-stars Sophie McShera (maid Daisy) in Jerusalem at the Apollo Theatre; Laura Carmichael (Lady Edith) in the current Uncle Vanya at the Vaudeville Theatre; and the Broadway debut of Dan Stevens (Matthew Crawley) in The Heiress.

No Quarter is a country house drama involving an inheritance and a feud over an estate. But Boyle says it’s a long way from Downton. “The best drama comes out of family drama so there’s a similarity between Downton and the play,” she said. “But beyond that, the resemblance ends. It’s a completely different tone — and nice to do something that is current.”

Stenham — most promising playwright at the 2007 Evening Standard Theatre Awards — describes the play as “the anarchic version of a drawing room drama”.

The actress, pictured, who grew up in Highgate and lives in West Hampstead, plays Scout, a self-indulgent bohemian and friend of Robin (Sturridge) who is at the centre of the inheritance dispute.

Since Downton she has made a pilot in America and won rave reviews for Cat On A Hot Tin Roof at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. She said it was “lovely” to be back in London where she is only spotted if she is out with housemate McShera.

Sturridge, 26 — who starred in movies On The Road and The Boat That Rocked and is the partner of Sienna Miller — is ideal as Robin, said Stenham. “Tom’s got a really natural intensity. That really fitted the character.”

No Quarter runs from January 11 to February 9. royalcourttheatre.com

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